I. Scripture-light the most sure light ... delivered in three sermons on 2 Pet.…

First, Though God doth not answer you presently, yet he doth hear you presently:¹ He heard Moses when he prayed, though he did not g•ant his prayer; and it is a great mercy that God will receive my prayer, though I never do receive the thing that I pray for; and I may yet say, Father, I thank thee that thou hearest me always.

First, Though God doth not answer you presently, yet he doth hear you presently:¹ He heard Moses when he prayed, though he did not g•ant his prayer; and it is a great mercy that God will receive my prayer, though I never do receive the thing that I pray for; and I may yet say, Father, I thank thee that thou hearest me alwaies.

1. 1Cito semper audit, tardus aliquando respondet.

But Secondly: It is usual with Gods own People, and dearest Children, to say, and think sometimes, that the Lord doth not answer their prayer, when the Lord doth. There is a Two-fold return, or Answer of Prayer: There is a Visible Return of Prayer; and there is an Invisible Return of Prayer. As it is with the Vapours that are drawn upward by the heat of the Sun; some there are, that do fall again in great Rain, and Hail, and ye hear and s•e ⟨p. 103⟩the returns of those vapours in the day; but sometimes the Vapours fall in a dew in the night, and you do not see the return thereof, but you go abroad in the morning, and you find the dew upon the ground, although you did not see when the dew fell. So here, your Prayers are drawn up by the heat of Gods Love in Christ; some return upon you again in the day, visibly; some return in the night, invisibly, when you see them not: there is a visible, and there is an invisible return of Prayer. What more usual with Gods People, than to say, and think, tha the Lord doth not hear their Prayer, nor make return to them, when indeed he doth, and that visibly unto others also?